Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has revealed it took Aaron Ramsey three years to
get over the mental scars of his horrific broken leg against Stoke City.

Ramsey is in the form of his life at the moment, having scored seven times in the opening eight games of the season, a remarkable turnaround for a player who has sometimes borne the brunt of supporter frustration in recent times.

Still only 22, the Wales midfielder was only 19 when he was the victim of a horror tackle Ryan Shawcross at the Britannia Stadium and was left sidelined for nine months.

Speaking ahead of Arsenal's clash with Stoke on Sunday, Wenger said it was not until "the last three or four months of last season" that Ramsey came to terms with the incident.

He added: "It took him a long time to get completely over that, especially in the duels, in the fights. He had a little resistance to go into the fights for a long time.

"Now he's over it. He scores goals now. I always thought he would score goals if he improves his technical quality.

"He has a great engine, great spirit and has an obsession – he wants always to be better."

Wenger insisted he had no doubt Ramsey would recover and insisted he never contemplated giving up on the midfielder.

"When you have a big injury before the age of 20, you come back and redevelop completely normally, once the psychological damage is out of your head.

"So I was not too much worried but you never know how big, how deep the impact is psychologically."

Wenger confirmed Mikel Arteta was set to return to full training on Friday and would be in contention for Sunday's game, which will also mark Mesut Ozil's home debut for Arsenal.

The fallout from Ozil's record £42.5 million departure from Real Madrid continued this week when the Spanish club's president, Florentino Perez, claimed the Germany star "could not stand the pressure" of playing at the Bernabeu.

Wenger said: "I have not seen that at all.

"He is 24, he has over 50 caps for Germany, and when you play for Germany, you are under a lot of pressure.

"He won the championship with Real Madrid, and that is a club where there is a lot of pressure, but I could not detect that."

Wenger confirmed Arsenal's players would be given a choice whether to wear rainbow laces in their boots as part of an anti-homophobia campaign on Sunday, although he questioned whether the gesture was appropriate.

He also backed the proposed move of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from summer to winter in order to protect supporters from the extreme heat in the Gulf state.

Meanwhile, the Frenchman would not be drawn on whether Arsenal would make a fresh effort to sign Wayne Rooney in the January transfer window if the striker does not extend his contract at Manchester United.